Brubeck - Jazz - Triple Play!

This is the interior of the Ronald & Lynda Nutt Theatre, one of the facilities comprising the Clayton Center For the Arts at Maryville College in Maryville Tennessee. This theatre is about one year old and it seats 1,200 people. It's a great setting with terrific acoustics! We've now been to two shows at this venue. The first was Neil Berg's 100 years of Broadway...a great show that we saw last fall.

This last week, we went to another show at the Nutt Theatre. It was 'Chris Brubeck & Triple Play'. We just had a great time! Chris Brubeck, (photo below), is of course, one of Dave Brubeck's sons...and for those that might not know, Dave Brubeck is one of the legends of the jazz world. Chris is especially skilled with the fretless electric bass, the bass trombone and the piano. He toured around the world with his father's band for over 10 years. Nowadays, he teaches, does guest appearances, plays with his brother in the 'Brubeck Brothers' ensemble and he's formed the group that we went to see, 'Triple Play'. There is no doubt that he's the driving force behind this talented group...

Joel Brown is the second member of 'Triple Play'. (photo below) Joel is currently the Senior Artist-in-Residence at the Department of Music at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. He is a guitar maestro...playing everything from chamber music to jazz to blues to classical pieces. Joel has appeared on the Today Show, Showbiz Today, on NPR and on the BBC. Joel seemed to be the 'rock'...the solid center of Triple Play. Very talented and understated...terrific guitarist!

Every good musical group needs a spark, a wild card so to speak! Peter 'Madcat' Ruth is the wild card in Triple Play... Quirky and very talented. He plays the harmonica like no one else we've ever heard. He makes it sing, wail and moan! At times Madcat had 3 harmonica in his hands as he switched from one to another. His talents with the harmonica have been heard on over 100 CD's and LP's. The other instrument that he played the other night was the 'jaw-harp'. The music he made with this instrument was truly distinctive and his ability to go back and forth between the harmonica and this mouth harp was seamless! Talented and a 'hoot' to watch too!

Triple Play was a very entertaining group... This is a crossover group that blends jazz with blues and folk music. Lots of talent and you can tell that they were having at least as much fun as the audience was! We liked the group and their sound so well that I actually sprang for 2 of their CD's after the show...'Triple Play Live' and 'Triple Play - Watching the World'. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a live performance by this group, we would highly recommend it! We had a great night out...